Cars suck

I've been having some trouble with my car lately. Occasionally, though not consistently, it will seem to "miss," to sputter and jerk a bit while accelerating. I had it in to the local Ford dealership last week, but they couldn't find out what was wrong with it. At one point, they mentioned the word "transmission" which scared me considerably. To me, that sounds way more expensive than it's probably worth it to fix. They didn't charge me anything last week since they couldn't figure anything out, and told me to drive it some and come back. Well, I went to Mankato and back (about 100 miles round trip) the next day with no problems. Then I drove over to Winona for part of the weekend, again with no problems. When I drove back, I stopped in Albert Lea and bought gas. Right after that, it again started doing the same thing it had done previously. I didn't take my car back in.

On Thursday, I was preparing to drive over to Winona again with three of my high school students to attend the Great River Shakespeare Festival's performance of Twelfth Night. We stopped on the way out of town, as I wanted to buy a water since I'd forgotten to grab one from the fridge before we left. When I got back in the car, it wouldn't start. I mean, nothing. It didn't turn over at all. I tried it several times, and in my frustration, got out and looked under the hood (like I could tell anything by that). I got back in the car and it started right away, but I felt very unsure about driving 160 miles with three kids, not knowing if the car would start after the next time I shut if off. I drove back home while one of the kids called her dad to see if it was okay if we took their car (she had driven everyone else over to my house). He was understandably reluctant to do that.

I drove back over to the Ford dealership, left my car with them, and rented a vehicle to drive to Winona with. So we made it to Winona and back without any problems; the play was excellent, by the way; I encourage anyone in the area to see it. When I returned the rental today, the owner of the dealership cut me a deal -- only 7 cents per mile instead of 15, which saved me about $25. Still this trip ended up costing me a lot more than it would have otherwise. I talked to the guys in the service department. They had to push my car in from the street 'cause they couldn't start it either. Apparently, the starter went out (they say that's the way they go, with no warning) and they are going to replace that. What else may be wrong with it, who knows. Right now, I've got a loaner car for the weekend ("to tool around town with" as they put it), which is a newer model, but almost exactly the same as my car, color and all.